You Panasonic AF-100 & GH series owners can now directly mount Carl Zeiss and Schneider-Kreuznach lenses.
Olympus Press Release
Carl Zeiss AG joins the Micro Four Thirds System Standard Group
Announced jointly by Olympus Imaging Corp. (President : Masaharu Okubo) and Panasonic Corporation in 2008, the Micro Four Thirds System standard has rapidly grown in popularity. Now, support for the standard is expanding with the decision of Carl Zeiss AG to join the Micro Four Thirds System standard, and the company is releasing lenses compliant with the standard.
For more than 160 years, the lenses of Carl Zeiss AG have been defining the state-of-the-art in optical technology. Now, as Carl Zeiss AG joins the Micro Four Thirds System group, ZEISS HD Video lenses will be available to users of Micro Four Thirds cameras, contributing to a vastly expanded product line and enhancing the joys of digital imaging with the Micro Four Thirds System.
As the originator of the Four Thirds System and Micro Four Thirds System standards, Olympus Imaging Corp. will continue to develop and enhance the product lineup for both standards to meet the diverse needs of our customers.
Carl Zeiss AG
A long-established optical systems manufacturer based in Germany, founded in 1846 by Carl Zeiss. It develops and manufactures a large variety of optical products such as astronomical telescopes, microscopes, eyeglasses and optical sight devices as well as high-class camera lenses.
Schneider-Kreuznach Press Release
SCHNEIDER KREUZNACH now a member of the “Micro Four Thirds System Standard Group”
BAD KREUZNACH, 4 February 2011.
Schneider-Kreuznach has joined the “Micro Four Thirds System Standard Group” – a consortium of companies with the objective of improving the possibilities and quality of compact digital cameras.
Developed by Olympus and Panasonic, “Micro Four Thirds” is a standard for lens mounts that is tailored to digital system cameras. “This standard has great potential. It simplifies and improves the options for compact digital cameras and offers an excellent opportunity for the industry as a whole, as well as for us as a lens manufacturer. We are working intensively on a corresponding series of lenses,” says Dr. Josef Staub, CEO of the Schneider Group.
The standard defines the sensor size, the lens mount together with the communication protocol, the aspect ratio and the flange back distance, as well as the optical requirements for production and construction. The
industry standard has been developed deliberately without taking into account conventional lenses, cameras or sensor sizes. In this way, compatibility problems with older components are avoided as is the need to compromise when designing new components.
The forum standard policy means that any member company can make and distribute accessories for the system that meet the standard. It is therefore possible to combine components from different manufacturers.
About the Schneider Group
The Schneider Group specializes in developing and producing high-performance photographic lenses, cinema projection lenses, as well as industrial optics and precision mechanics. The group comprises Jos. Schneider Optische Werke, founded in Bad Kreuznach in 1913, and its subsidiaries Pentacon (Dresden), Schneider Kreuznach Isco Division (Göttingen), Schneider-Optics (New York, Los Angeles), Schneider Bando (Seoul), Schneider Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) and Schneider Optical Technologies (Shenzhen). The company’s main brand is “Schneider-Kreuznach”. It has around 620 employees worldwide, with 330 based in its German headquarters. For years now the group has been a world market leader in the area of high-performance lenses.